You and I Collide
by PurpleMoon12
Summary: Chloe never imagined going back to live with her parents after being evicted from her apartment. She needs a place to live, even if that means sharing with a grumpy, green eyed stranger who avoids her like the plague. Disclaimer: I don't own Darkest Powers.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys, I've come up with an update schedule that I'm fairly happy with (and one that I hope you guys will be happy with too). I mentioned on my other main story (Hurting) that I was considering doing a new one and showed you guys a preview of this one I'm starting now. One of my reviewers bought up the issue of staying on schedule if I'm balancing two stories, so I came up with the idea that I update one of my stories every second Sunday, alternating between each story. This gives me plenty of time to write, proof read and correct between my chapters too as each one will be updated once a month. **

**So today I'll be publishing this first chapter (yay!), and then in two weeks time I'll update my other story and so forth. Hope you guys enjoy, and please rate **

After what felt like months of searching, I was ready to give up and this time I meant it. I threw my hands up in the air, flinging the wireless mouse across the room and onto Kari's lap.

"I'm so done with this!" I wheeled around in my chair and stood up. Storming over to the pile of cardboard boxes, I began to peel the duct tape from them, fully intent on settling down in my old bedroom.

It hadn't changed much ever since I left for college. The walls were still a baby pink and there were traces of tack left over from all of the posters. Mom didn't even paint over the collage I made in ninth grade, despite how nauseatingly bright and tacky it was.

One year out of college and I was back where I started – my parents' house. While I was in college they offered board, which I jumped straight into. After leaving, I settled into an apartment in town where I was comfortable. That was until I fell behind in my rent and came home to an eviction notice.

"I'm never going to find a God damned affordable house. Not in this damn economy anyway." I mumbled to myself as I opened the first box which revealed to be full of DVD's. After effortlessly picking the box up and dumping it next to my DVD shelf, I proceeded to the second one.

In the midst of my fit of prying open boxes, fully intent on unpacking and settling back in, Kari had made her way over to my desk and was scrolling through the forty third out of the fifty pages advertising the most recent housing and apartment shares.

"How about this one? Two bedrooms, one bathroom. It's just across town." She suggested but then shook her head when she saw the weekly rent. "Maybe not at that price." Trying to be helpful, she rattled off a few more suggestions but they were either too expensive or in the dodgy part of town where no twenty three year old woman should go without a can of pepper spray. Being just a bit taller than five feet, I was the poster child for a victim in those neighbourhoods.

"This one looks nice." She called me over. "Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, one study. Wow, look at that living room! It's in your price range, Chloe!"

I gazed over the web page where somebody by the name of Derek had posted an advertisement for an apartment share. Kari was right; it _was _in my price range. I couldn't help but wonder why it was so cheap. Was somebody murdered in the second bedroom or something?

She sensed my hesitation as I rocked back on my heels. "Just look into it, Chlo. It can't hurt to get a tour of the place. Give this Derek guy a call and see what you can arrange. You really don't want to live in your old high school bedroom forever."

I sighed with even more hesitation and Kari picked up on it instantly.

"I _might _give him a call tomorrow." I slumped back onto my bed, defeated. House and apartment share hunting was more exhausting than I would've thought.

"No, you call him today." Kari demanded. "You've been here for five weeks and you're going crazy already."

Kari was right. After living on my own for just a little over four years – even if most of that time was spent in my college dorm- , I was completely independent and content with how my life was going, but after being evicted I had nowhere to go other than my parent's house. As much as I loved my mom and dad, living with them was the last thing I wanted to do at the age of twenty three after initially moving out.

"Fine, I'll call him today but that doesn't mean that anything's guaranteed." I told her.

Kari sighed. "Just talk to him, tell him that you're fresh out of college, you work and you're quiet and neat and he'll give you the apartment share on a silver platter."

I scoffed. "Yeah, I wish it worked like that but there are probably other people calling him about it too."

"Well it doesn't hurt to try." She chimed. "Anyways, I've got to get to work. Don't unpack your things just yet, Chloe, because even if things don't work out with this Derek guy, you'll find a place soon enough." She assured.

I smiled at her words of encouragement as she let herself out and I turned back to the computer screen. The apartment _did _seem nice, and it was in a decent part of town. It was also in my price range. The guy who placed the advertisement also seemed pretty decent so I scrolled down to his number, fully intent on calling him when I was interrupted by a knock on my door.

"Found anything yet?" Mom asked.

I sighed. "There's not much in terms of comfort _and _affordability, but Kari pointed out this one." I tilted the computer screen to show her. "It looks nice enough and it's within my budget."

"It looks cosy, but are you sure you want to share an apartment with a boy, Chloe?" She asked, sceptical. After all, I was still her baby and she took the opportunity of me living under her roof, once again, to coddle me as much as she could before I found a place to live.

"Right now it seems like my only option. The only other places that I can afford are across town and I don't think I'm desperate enough yet to consider them. Any ways, I'm sure he's nice."

My mother hesitatingly nodded her approval and I grinned at her. After I told her that I was about to call this Derek guy, she wished me luck and left me in peace.

With each passing moment I grew more nervous in calling him. What was I even supposed to say? _'Hey, my name's Chloe and I want to live with you.' _Probably wouldn't be the best approach.

Before I even realised, I had dialled the number listed on the web page. My phone was up at my ear and I was hearing the unsettling _ring ring _as I awaited an answer.

When I heard the dull clunk of the phone being picked up, my mind was rid of every single word I had rehearsed in my head prior to dialling.

A gruff _'Hello?' _greeted me on the other end of the line and I took a deep breath.

"H-hello, is this D-Derek?" I mentally cursed myself when my stutter kicked in.

The person on the other end sighed. "Yes this is Derek."

"Oh okay." I paused. "My name is Chloe, I'm just calling about the-"

"I know what you're calling about." He cut me off.

I was taken aback by his abruptness. For somebody who, I assumed, was looking for somebody else to try and lessen their financial burden, they were the opposite of welcoming.

"M-my understanding is that y-you're s-s-still looking for somebody?" Once again, I cursed my stutter.

"How old are you?" He asked.

"Twenty three." I replied.

"And you stutter?" He asked with what I would've described as disbelief evident in his voice.

My mouth gaped open in disbelief. Who the _hell _does this guy think he is? Every single bone in my body wanted to tell him where to go and hang up, but I was desperate. "I don't see where this comes into play here, Derek." I stated firmly. "I called you to inquire about the advertisement you placed for the apartment share but if you're going to be hostile about this then let me tell you that you'll have a lot of trouble finding somebody who will put up with your crap." I told him and then hung up.

My fists shook out of anger and I let out a frustrated grunt. I threw my phone on my bed and then plonked down beside it out of defeat. I was so close to giving up, no matter how badly I wanted to pack my things, move out and be independent again.

In the midst of my fit of anger, my phone rang under an unfamiliar number. I reluctantly answered it with a _'Hello?'_

Instantly, the person on the other line spoke. "It's Derek; I got your number from caller ID. Look, I'm sorry about that and it was probably uncalled for and I doubt you want to give me a shot, but did you want to come and check out the flat? I didn't mean to offend you."

I let out a lengthy and loud sigh, hoping that he would hear. I thought about it for a moment, and then eventually told him "Sure."

After a brief chat, we sorted out a date and a time that was suitable for the both of us to meet at his apartment. We exchanged our goodbyes and hung up.

Derek didn't seem like the most welcoming person on Earth, but the least I could do for him was give him a shot. Besides, he was man enough to call me back and apologise after insulting me, so maybe he was nice after all.

And if I _were _to move in with this guy, I just hoped that I was making the right choice.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys, sorry that this update is really late. Year 12 has been kicking my ass but I'm on holidays now! I'm starting to think a schedule isn't a good idea since I have assignments coming out of the wazoo, but I'm writing whenever I have a free minute (unfortunately that's not very often). In return I'm going to try and update my other story fairly quickly for you guys now that I have a bit of time off!**

**So here's chapter two, and I hope you guys enjoy!**

The day that Derek had picked for us to meet up was not going in my favour at all. After my alarm didn't go off I only had twenty minutes to get ready for work by the time I woke up, which meant that I had to skip out on my usual morning coffee in order to shower, get dressed and do my make-up. It only got worse from there when I couldn't get my car into gear to reverse, which seemed to be becoming quite a common problem with it. Maybe it was time to ditch the old, beat up Holden that I'd owned since high school for something a bit more modern. The fact that the air conditioner didn't work either was just the cherry on top, and since it was the middle of summer, my car was stifling hot.

The second I walked in the door of the office I was greeted by Angela, who didn't even look up from her computer screen as she bid me a 'hello'. After I had put my bag in my locker, I took my seat at the receptionist desk. I shuffled through the papers that Julia, the woman who had worked the shift before mine, had carelessly left behind without filing them. It happened often, after seven years of working as a dental receptionist and assistant, she just didn't care for her work anymore. Unfortunately this meant that I was the one to pick up after her and I hoped that it wasn't going to be for much longer. The boss was getting sick of Julia's shenanigans and was probably figuring out a way to fire her, which meant that we'd get a new junior to train.

Halfway through picking up Julia's mess and filing it away, I was interrupted by Nate, who was one of the dentists. He shot me a friendly smile and I sent a half-hearted one back.

"You don't look so good." He said.

"Thanks," I replied sarcastically. "It's probably from a lack of caffeine."

"Tsk, that's not good for your teeth, Chloe."

"Nothing's good for anything nowadays, now go and have lunch." I glared.

He held his hands up in mock surrender and laughed as he walked out of the building, most likely to get his usual order of a McDonald's kid's meal.

After filing away Julia's work and starting on my own, I marvelled as Nate came back bearing a hot, take-away coffee from the shop next door. He set it down in front of me and gave me a quick smile before disappearing back into his room where his next patient awaited him.

I greedily consumed the caffeine that was laid in front of me.

"Rough night?" Angela asked. "I never see somebody drink their coffee that quickly unless they have a hangover."

"More like rough morning." I grumbled.

"Isn't it a little early to be drinking?"

I scowled at her assumption. "You know what I mean." I ran my hand through my messy strawberry blonde hair and pulled it up into a high ponytail. "It could not have come on a worse day."

She held her hands up in mock surrender and laughed. "Well hopefully that liquid energy kicks in fast. We need to clean out one of the storage rooms today and do a re-stock."

I skulled the rest of the coffee down and threw the cup in the bin. "Then we'd better get started."

The store room wasn't what I had anticipated at all. I opened the door and swallowed the lump in my throat that told me I was never going to leave in time to get to Derek's apartment by half past five.

'_Did a tornado tear this up?' _I thought to myself.

Angela and I exchanged glances and rolled our eyes before setting off to work. Don't get me wrong, I loved being a dental assistant, but on days where everything seemed to be going wrong, it took a lot of effort, especially when I had to clean and re-stock a storeroom that closely resembled a bomb site.

My plans for finishing work at 5 o'clock diminished when I realised that we still had a long way to go. It was quarter past five when Nate came in looking for some supplies.

"Don't you have that meeting with this Derek guy in fifteen minutes?" He asked pointedly. "You should probably get going."

"I should probably finish this before I leave." I told him as I gestured to the room that _still _was a wreck.

Nate rolled his eyes at me. "Just go, Chloe. I'll finish up after I've done my paper work."

"Thank you, Nate." I grinned.

After grabbing my belongings I headed straight to the car, already knowing that I would be late. I didn't want to rock up in my work uniform so I ended up changing in the back seat of my car. Classy, right? I just hoped that the windows were tinted enough to disguise what I was doing to the outside world.

After driving around for half an hour trying to find Derek's apartment building in a part of town that I wasn't so familiar with, I finally found it. I shut off the ignition and took a few deep breaths.

Deciding against the elevator, I climbed six flights of stairs before coming to the level that I was looking for.

After I had found apartment 368 I nervously knocked on the door. Standing back, I fidgeted with my hair, my clothes – anything that might have kept my nerves in check.

A click of the door unlocking made me snap my head up as it cracked open a fraction. Behind it I saw half of a face peek out at me.

"H-hi, you must be Derek. I'm Chloe. Chloe Saunders." I smiled, trying to appear more confident than I actually was.

"I know who you are, and you're late." He sighed and closed the door completely.

Raising an eyebrow, I was about to knock again when I heard the clinking of the chain that must have still been locked on the other side. The door swung open completely to reveal a man, who must have been at least six and a half feet tall. His jet black hair hung in his eyes but behind the curtain of hair, I caught a glimpse of vibrant green.

"Derek. Derek Souza." He rumbled.

"Nice to meet you." I held out my hand, anticipating a handshake or some other kind of formality, but he just looked at it and smirked.

"There's no need for formalities, Chloe." He told me as he stepped aside. "Come in."

Considering that I didn't know Derek, I didn't know what to expect when I stepped into his apartment. As he closed the door behind me I began to look around. To the left of the entrance there was a cosy looking brown leather couch which faced the television that was supported by a small cabinet. The shelves of the cabinet appeared to hold quite an impressive DVD collection. To the right of the room was a small kitchen and dinner table. The table was covered in papers and books, and on the very top of the stack balanced a laptop that looked like it was ready to topple over.

"Uh, yeah it's not very tidy. Sorry." He mumbled. "It's not usually like this."

Fully taking in the room, he was right about it not being tidy. But the clutter and the mess made it seem more welcoming. It actually looked like a home and somewhere that I knew that I would be comfortable living in.

"It's fine." I smiled.

Derek made us coffees and we sat on the couch to talk. He asked about where I worked, my future goals and most importantly, whether or not I could keep up with the rent. Since the rent was such a reasonable price and I worked quite a bit, I assured him that it would be fine. If need be I could reach into the money I already had saved.

Derek seemed reasonably nice. He was softly spoken and my guess was that he was a little bit shy. From the scatter of books and paperwork over the kitchen table and bench, he was probably very work-orientated and maybe even a little bit messy. It didn't bother me though, considering I wasn't the tidiest person myself.

After he asked everything that he had planned, he stood up. "I guess I'd better give you a tour then." He mumbled the words. "And a key to the place."

"Really?" I smiled.

"Well it's either you move in or another guy who smells like vinegar and breeds rats. I know who I'd prefer."

I didn't question it. I finally had a place to stay and that was all that mattered to me.

Derek showed me around the apartment and we discussed the bond and payments.

"So how come it's so cheap?" I asked him.

"My previous roommate did a runner. I came home from a weekend away and his things were gone, along with _my _TV. I wanted somebody new to move in to share the expenses."

"If I'm going to move in are the expenses going to even for the both of us? Because it's awfully cheap." I lowered my voice. "Nobody died in the bedroom, did they?"

He stopped dead in his tracks and spun around to look at me. "What?! No!"

I held my hands up in surrender. "It was a joke."

Derek scowled. "Well as far as I know, nobody has died here."

We continued with the tour. He showed me around the bedrooms, the bathroom and the study. Of course I had already seen the living room and kitchen when I first entered the apartment and they were completely different to the rest of the rooms. The kitchen and living room were cluttered with books and papers, whereas the hallways, bedrooms and bathroom were tidy and clutter free.

Derek had me sign a bond and before I knew it, I was saying goodbye and heading back to my car. It was official; I finally had a place to call home! Granted on the pre-existing clutter, I was going to have to tone it down on the personalization. After all, I had to share it with somebody else and Derek probably wouldn't appreciate me ruining what he already had in the apartment.

I was definitely going to need to leave some boxes back at home too. When I first moved out I had bought everything that I needed to in order to have a cosy apartment and that included furniture. Most of it was stored away safe in my parents' garage, but it couldn't stay there forever. Regardless of how much my parents loved me, they were getting sick of me using their house as a place to store all of my things even though I lived there. I was going to have to sell a lot of my furniture, which would help me in the long run financial wise.

When I waltzed through the door of my parents' house, I threw my bag down and skipped into the kitchen where my mom was tending to a pot that was set on the stove and my dad was at the kitchen table reading the newspaper. They looked up at me, curious as to why I was so cheery, and then it dawned on them.

Mom's initial expression of surprise turned into happiness and gave me her usual, sweet smile. My dad broke out in a huge grin as he put the paper down.

"I take that it went well?" Dad asked.

I smiled and that was all they needed. "I'm so happy for you, honey!" Mom chirped. Dad congratulated me and gave me a light, affectionate thump on the back.

"So when are you leaving us?" He asked.

"Derek's going to call me when he clears out the spare room, then we'll talk about a date." I announced excitedly.

My parents congratulated me again and I left them in the kitchen to go to my room. When I looked around, I sighed in relief that I hadn't unpacked all of my boxes.

But I still knew that I had some work to do…

**I admit, I'm not the greatest at ending chapters but I'm still somewhat pleased with how this turned out.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**I know, it's been a while since an update. Year 12 has been kicking my ass. But, this weekend I decided that I'd sit my ass down with a lot of junk food and write a damn chapter for one of my stories. And also clear some things up:**

_**This is a non-supernatural story.**_

_**No, I will not write lemons, that's just not my thing.**_

**So here's the new chapter, it's kind of short but I hope you guys enjoy.**

"I don't like it." Liam told me. "You don't even know this guy and you're moving in with him! I mean, you didn't even think to tell me. Do you know how this makes me feel?" My boyfriend of four years rambled on about my new home. It was my first day living in Derek's apartment and Liam wasn't pleased when he found out that I was going to be living with another guy.

"Liam, it's fine, you have nothing to worry about." I assured him.

"I'm not so sure about that, Chloe." He said coldly, slamming his fist down on the table of the coffee shop we were sitting in.

"Liam, please." The last thing I wanted was for him to make a scene. "Look, there's not much I can do about it now. I have a place to live and I'm happy with it."

"Well I'm not." He spat as he leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. Ever since I left college, he wanted to find a place where he and I would move in together. I never told him that I thought it would be a bad idea – he was awful with money and couldn't keep a steady job to pay any rent or mortgage. That would have left me paying the bills, which I wouldn't be able to afford.

I found it amusing, however, that moving in with a complete stranger would be more beneficial for me financially than moving in with my boyfriend of four years. Liam could sigh and huff all he wanted, I signed the documents and I was living in that apartment with Derek.

"Look, I'm really sorry but this is what's best for me." I tried to reason.

"_I'm _what's best for you, Chloe." He glared.

There was no point in arguing with him, he was set in his ways and very possessive of me. I sighed. "I left a few boxes in the lobby this morning; I should really go and move them to the apartment." I told him as I stood up. I threw a twenty dollar bill down on the table to pay for my share of our lunch and began to walk off. "I'll call you later."

I walked out of the coffee shop, into the heat. It was still summer and stifling hotter than usual. My red shirt felt sticky against my skin after just a minute of walking. Gross.

"Chloe, wait up!" Liam's voice shouted. I turned around to see him weave his way through the crowd. He caught up and offered to walk me back to the apartment building, his voice sounding slightly gentler and sadder. Maybe he felt bad for the way he handled things, but he never said anything about it. No apology, nothing at all.

When we walked into the lobby, Derek was there with one of my boxes in his arms. My boyfriend instantly took a defensive stance when he saw him. I wasn't quite sure whether it was out of intimidation, or the desire to be the intimidator.

"Oh hey, Derek. I thought I said I didn't need help with these." I said.

"That's okay, there's only two more to go." He looked over the box to see Liam in all of his grumpy glory. "Hey, man, if you wouldn't mind helping could you grab the last box?" He asked him as I picked up a box labelled "Clothing".

Liam grumbled a response since he didn't like being told what to do, but picked up the last box and followed Derek and I into the elevator. We reached our floor and awkwardly waddled to the apartment where we set down the boxes at the door.

Derek invited Liam in for coffee but he muttered an excuse to leave – it was a pride thing.

I walked Liam to the door where he spun to face me.

"Chloe, I just can't deal with this. I don't like you living with this dude and I can't trust that you won't cheat on me."

"A-are you kidding?" I choked out. "Liam I would never cheat on you!"

"Well I don't know that. Also, I've been trying to get you to move in with me since you finished college and that never happened."

Usually against Liam, I would back down, but something in what he said made my blood boil. "It's because you don't earn a steady income to actually keep up with a mortgage!" I blurted.

"So it's all about the money, is it Chloe?" He asked accusingly.

"It's about keeping a roof over my head and not getting evicted." I scowled.

"You know what? Don't bother. We're over. I was hoping that you were going to take this relationship more seriously but I guess not."

"Liam, don't be like that." I pleaded, trying to ration with him.

"Too late, Chloe. If you're going to choose a stranger over me then… whatever." He turned away and walked towards the elevator.

I waited until he was around the corner to let a tear fall from my eye. I wiped it away with my arm, deciding that the tears could come later. There was still a lot of unpacking to do and I owed it to Derek to not leave his place a mess for too long while in the process of moving in. While most of the boxes were stored in my room there were a stray few that had taken over the living room that needed to be sorted.

Although the apartment was cluttered, Derek didn't actually own many things. It was a small space with probably too much furniture and way too many books – mostly on science. The boxes strewn all over the floor didn't help the clutter either so I wanted to clear them out and get settled in as soon as possible.

At least by doing that then my mind would be occupied by something other than Liam. Maybe he would realise that he made a mistake, but I doubted it. He had too much pride to come crawling back to me, and I wasn't sure if I wanted that anyway. Our relationship was toxic and I was already at the edge of ending it, but somehow by him doing it, I felt empty and I couldn't understand why. I was free now, right?

By the end of the day only half of the boxes were unpacked and I was still settling into my new room. I hadn't really heard from Derek though, he was in and out of the apartment all day running errands. Somewhere between running around, he had enough time to make a dinner which he left for me. I greedily chowed down the bowl of stir fry along with a cup of tea. Despite the fact that it was only a simple stir fry, Derek could really cook. It was nothing like the food I ate when in college, that's for sure.

After I had eaten dinner, I had a nice relaxing shower and changed into an old pair of shorts and a singlet. I had accidentally left the box which contained my pyjamas back at my parents' house and I wasn't willing to make a special trip to pick it up.

My new room was cosy. It wasn't small, but it was big enough to fit a double bed and a dresser in it. If I was really desperate then I'd be able to squeeze a bookshelf or a desk in there but there wasn't much need for either of those things at the moment. It was comfortable and I liked it.

Sleep was exactly what I needed after today, and the fact that I had the next day off work was just bliss. I wouldn't have to worry about an alarm waking me, or about getting to work on time. I contemplated exploring this new part of town that I wasn't familiar with but decided it would be better with somebody with me – that way I wouldn't get lost. The thought of living somewhere new excited me and although I was eager to explore, all I wanted to do was lay in bed and sleep. After moments of contemplating whether or not to watch a movie, I decided against it and allowed my head to hit the pillow. Not long after I drifted into a deep, comfortable sleep.


End file.
